


Confrontation

by LightningClawedSky



Category: Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Near Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-15 14:59:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18501364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LightningClawedSky/pseuds/LightningClawedSky
Summary: Raekai and Ike have been friends since even before their deaths, although Raekai was much different then. Here, in the Underground, he's violent and sadistic. Except to Ike, but who knows when that will change?





	Confrontation

**Author's Note:**

> Fic written for my friend (Lolzmazter on tumblr) or our OCs.

“Raekai!” Ike screamed, slamming open the stairwell door, running into the floor of the parking garage. He was panting heavily, looking every which direction in a mild panic, until he spotted his partner.

“Oh, hey Ike.” Raekai turned around, sending the vibe of the harrier Reaper, a friendly grin on his face. In his left hand, there was a Reaper hoisted into the air by their red hoodie, kicking helplessly in a futile attempt to get himself free. 

“Don't “hey Ike,” me, just tell me what the fuck are you doing!?” Ike shouted, sprinting his way up to the other two, before stopping in his tracks with a groan. Why couldn't Raekai behave himself the moment eyes were taken off of him? Why did Ike of all people have to babysit this big idiot?

“He was talk'n shi’ abou’ ya and ya'r job in th'RG.” Raekai mumbled, glancing at the poor Reaper he held, before looking back at Ike, his eyebrows furrowed together in confusion, like a child wondering why his actions were considered “wrong.”

“I don't care what he was saying.” Ike pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. Was it annoying? Yes, but it wasn't any reason to pick a fight with someone. “Just let him go.”

“Bu'--”

“Let him go, Ikuto.” Ike repeated, his voice stern.

Raekai looked at the Support Reaper, then at his friend, and then back to the other Reaper, before dropping them in defeat. The Reaper landed on their ass, looking up in surprise as they tried to catch their breath, as they surely thought that would be the end of the line for them, before scrambling away on all fours as fast as they possibly could.

Ike sighed, shaking his head. He grabbed Raekai's arm and pulled him towards the exit in a silent anger. 

“We're going home. Now.”

\---

“Who pissed in ya'r Cheerios t'day?” Raekai asked, glancing at Ike as he shifted his weight from foot to foot. 

Ike glanced up from fumbling with his keys, before back down at the door, unlocking it and walking inside. Raekai sighed, following. The walk back to Pork City was annoyingly silent, and all his attempts to make conversation the entire time went ignored. Ike must have been really mad at him if he was choosing not to make any retorts to his comments, the Officer noted with a pout.

“Fine, if ya're go'n t'be like tha’, I'll jus’ fuck off in'o my room and hack some corpora’ion for fun.”

“Don't.” Ike let out a growl. “Can't you see that's part of the problem here? You always butt in where your nose doesn't belong, and then immediately after, you go and create new problems!”

“Im jus’...bored, man…”

“That isn't good enough of an excuse anymore, Raekai!” Ike shouted, his fists clenching at his sides. “You're bored of this, bored of that, moving from one problem to the next, and creating a whole new other problem in the process!”

Ike took in a deep breath and narrowed his eyes, looking at Raekai's hand. “...You were going to Erase him, weren't you?”

“What?” Raekai head rose back in surprise at the accusation, but…

“Your hand is ungloved.” Ike stated flatly with a whisper, closing his eyes and let out a groan. “That damn sigil is the base root of so many of these problems, and I hate it!”

“So?” Raekai growled. “I’ was my choice tha’ landed me wi'h I’ in th'firs’ place.”

Your choice, or was it Sho's for roping you into helping him? Ike thought to himself bitterly. 

As much as it did hurt, he could deal with the fact that the Game warped Raekai's personality into someone he didn't know when he was alive- it was still Raekai by those means. However, ever since Raekai got branded with that parasite, Ike noticed the minor changes. The restlessness and impulsiveness only seemed to grow worse, like Raekai didn't have full control of himself anymore. 

Some days, Ike would come home and Raekai would be having a full blown conversation with himself. That was the part that worried Ike the most- he didn't know how to deal with it all, because he didn't know what to expect. Has something like this ever happened before in the UG? Was there actual information he would even be able to get his hands on, or would it be kept hush and private?

He could tell Megumi to pass it to the Composer. Maybe he could mention it to Hanekoma, as he was knowledgeable about the Game-- but what good would that do? He didn't know what would happen to Raekai if he did that. As much as he hated to admit it, he relied heavily on the Officer. Rent, food, even safety, those were things he didn't have to worry about with Raekai around.

However, he just couldn't take the delinquent's antics anymore.

“Look,” Ike started, crossing his arms, as if that would help get his point across. “I'm so sick of fucking having to look after you, to make sure you stay in line and don't get in trouble.”

“Why th'fuck do ya care anyways?” Raekai grumbled, walking over to the kitchen table, sitting harshly into the plastic chair with a creak. He opened his laptop, the clacking of the keyboard and the clicking of the house the only things breaking the silence. Multitasking, he was good at that.

“Because…” Raekai looked up at Ike, awaiting to hear the explanation. “Because it's my duty-- I have to!”

Raekai slowly pushed himself from the table, the metal chair legs screeching along the tiles of the kitchen. Ike gulped, his prior confidence evaporating into the air, leaving a knot of mixed emotions behind. His mind scrambled to out a name will what he felt. What was it? Anticipation? Nervousness? When his brain clicked the pieces together, the knot suddenly grew, consuming his insides and gripping his bones an his heart skipped a beat at the realization.

Fear.

He was afraid.

Ike still wasn't used to having his emotions back. Sure, it was only a week they were gone, but that was a week that changed him entirely as a person; and it wasn't just him-- Raekai would never be the same the moment he entered the Underground. He was doomed to be warped, twisted and contorted by a cruel fate.

In a way, it was sickening.

He couldn't think about that now. Ike took a step back as Raekai took a step forwards in return. Lowering his head, white hair shrouded the killers head, his eyes glossed over in a silent fury. Ike had seen Raekai pissed off before, but it was never from the standpoint of prey. The bystander became the hunted.

“Really?” Raekai felt the corners of his mouth twitch into an annoyed grin. “And who gave ya these du’ies? B'cause, as far as I can tell, they weren' assigned by Conductor or Composer. Am I wrong?”

Ike looked up, at Raekai, feeling his heart jump into his throat. He opened his mouth to speak, to retaliate or say something to defend himself, but he shut his mouth as soon as he felt the wall of the kitchen pressed against his back.

“No one asked ya t'keep an eye on me. There weren’ any orders.” Raekai growled, bringing his left hand up to his mouth, biting harshly down on it until he could taste blood. He spat the mouthful of blood at Ike's feet. “This isn’ anyone's faul’ bu’ ya'r own.”

Ike's jaw clenched as he looked around, analyzing his situation. He had guessed there would be a point in his life where this would have happened, where Raekai would snap and Erase him, but he wasn't prepared. He didn't know what to do, or where to run; there was no preparation, and besides, Raekai's hulking body was also blocking the front door. Ike took in a shuddered breath.

Guess I'm cornered… Ike thought to himself. He couldn't tell if he wanted to laugh, or to cry. I had a good life, and what little afterlife I had wasn't too bad either.

Raekai smeared the bloody hand across the sigil, effectively releasing the Noise Armour. From the moment Raekai had plotted with Sho, having his plans backfire, turn against him and become a part of him, Ike had always known that he would get his throat torn out because of it. That was called consequence. He hated everything that sigil stood for, and everything it took away from Raekai, eating away at what was left at him. He hated the raw power and ruthlessness behind it, how illegal it was, even worse than delinquent rule breaking, and how dangerous he knew it always was.

Goodbye, mom…

Raekai grabbed Ike's shirt and sweater by the collar, roughly hoisting the other into the air, claws poised to gouge out his friends throat. His lips were pulled back, barring his serrated teeth, growling like the animal he is.

Goodbye, dad, even though I don't really know you...

“I made th'choice t'be like this.” Raekai hissed, his voice laced with static, and oddly layered. Was it even Raekai talking now, or was it the damn sigil? “A prime output of a self righ’eous suicide.”

"Just do it," Ike said, his unwavering eyes finally closing, accepting his fate. He didn't feel scared now, he didn't feel worried about his parents. Hopefully they'd understand. Was fear such a strong emotion, that all your other senses we're dulled into a numbers?

“You've always been a monster, anyways."

Raekai's claws were still in position, but they did not move closer to Ike's throat, just shaking mid air, as if he was fighting himself. He wanted to do it, he wanted to rip open Ike's throat and go wild, year into his flesh and mutilate him; but here he was: unable to make a move, and his eyes unable to make eye contact with who he called his ‘best friend.’

Raekai forced the shaking hand clinging to Ike's sweatshirt to open, causing the teenager to fall onto the cool floor, his eyes opening in surprise. He already had thought that he would die.

"I'm not a monster." Raekai spoke in a hoarse whisper, in a voice that was once his. A voice that knew calamity and composure. A voice that never wanted to die. 

A voice who was scared at what he was becoming, and feared who he already was.

It was in that moment of confrontation in the kitchen, that Ike realized that the pang he felt in his heart as it jumped into his throat was sadness. A sadness that he'd never see his true best friend the same was as when he still had a heartbeat. That every day, more and more pieces of him were being lost to either the mental pressure of permanently being lost to either his entry fee, or the evil that lay branded on his hand.

In that same moment, Ike realized he would have rather have been Erased, instead of having to see what horror the shell of his best friend would become. 

He never wanted this.


End file.
